Following the Pope’s announcement that the 2027 World Youth Day will be held in Seoul, South Korea, Archbishop Chung Soon-taek of the Archdiocese of Seoul told this news site: This will be an opportunity to revive the youth pastoral work of our church. We hope to invite the whole society and neighbors to countries to contribute together.
(Vatican News Network) The World Youth Day will return to Asia in 2027. The last time the World Youth Day was held in the Philippines in 1995, there were about 4 million participants, and even Pope John Paul II had to take a helicopter to go to the altar to officiate the mass. As soon as the venue of the next World Youth Day was announced, Archbishop Chung Soon-taek of Seoul immediately accepted an interview with this news site to talk about this grand event.
Archbishop Chung first pointed out that the World Youth Day in Seoul “will be an excellent opportunity to unite young people and let them be the protagonists”. He once mentioned that in the past 20 years, the proportion of Korean Catholics has grown from 8.3% to 11.1%, but this does not mean that more young people go to church, because South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, with an average of only 0.8 children.
Regarding the lessons learned from the WYD experience in Lisbon, Archbishop Zheng pointed out: “In WYD Lisbon 2023, I saw many volunteers. They worked very hard and gave their all. This is a great help for WYD Therefore, in South Korea, we also hope to invite many Koreans, not only young people, but also people of all ages to work together as volunteers. For the success of the World Youth Day, volunteers will be a big Help.”
In addition, Archbishop Chung also said: “This World Youth Day will also be a good opportunity for our Korean youth pastoral work to reach a higher level. After nearly three years of the new crown virus global pandemic, youth pastoral work in South Korea It has become very difficult. Therefore, when preparing for the next World Youth Day, we hope to use some of the renewal of Korean pastoral work, invite youth, etc. to reorganize the entire youth work. This means preparing for the next World Youth Day During the festival, Korean youth will become youth leaders within the Church and society. We will accompany them in becoming youth leaders.”
Holding the World Youth Day in South Korea will make not only the Korean people but also all ethnic groups in Asia very happy. Archbishop Chung embraced this conviction, saying: “We, therefore, the Korean bishops and the Korean Church will share this opportunity, and we will discuss it with other countries. We hope to invite them to cooperate with us as well.”
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2023-08-07 09:34:44
